Touching Spirit Bear Essay

“Everybody is part of the healing, including people from the community-anybody who cares. But healing is much harder than standard punishment. Healing requires taking responsibility for your actions. ” Everyone has a role in their community, and based on their role comes a responsibility. My role in my community is as a student, and my responsibility as a student is to respect my peers and to learn how to become a productive member of society. Young students generally lack the ability to respect themselves completely, which makes them have trouble respecting others.

However, ones ability to control his or her anger can affect their ability to respect. I think that when someone in a community has hurt or been hurt, the community is partially responsible for helping the perpetrator/victim heal. Whether the people involved in the problem are respected or not, the community is still responsible for helping them in the stark task of healing because they are a part of the community, and they each contribute toward helping the community.

Although when a bad choice is made people get hurt, I thinks that it’s important to make a bad choice every now and then because the community, not just the person, can always learn and improve upon themselves. Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a big accident to help someone improve, like Cole. I agree with what the character Edwin said about how someone can change with a steady, continuous push or with a sudden push. I like that idea because not every person reacts to an event the same way. I agree with the statement that healing is much more difficult than the standard punishment.

In the book Touching Spirit Bear, Cole heals only after he learns how to respect, to control his anger, and helps the boy he hurt. However, at first, he feigned that he cared and just kept being defiant. It’s not easy for one to wake up and turn his or her life around. I find that even when I decide I’m going to change my approach towards something, it’s very hard to actually change and carry out my decision. Firstly, because making a decision is very different from actually doing something. Secondly, because it’s hard to break a habit.

When I first started earth science, I found it very difficult and my grades were in the low nineties. Then, I decided to study more so I could get better grades. I thought I was devoted to studying, however, it took me a while to actually start studying. Even after I started studying every night my grades were low, but weeks later my grades went up. I think that story helps prove my point about how it’s very difficult to change. Many people make mistakes, but how many people actually take responsibility for their mistakes? Life is teeming with choices, and it’s impossible to always make a good choice.

I admit, I make mistakes AND I usually deny that I made a mistake or try to diminish the fault. I think that people feel like if they make a mistake, they aren’t as good as the person next to them. Not many people understand that a persons flaws differentiate them from others. Circle Justice offers a chance for people to fix their flaws, while the traditional justice system seeks to punish people for their mistakes. Maybe people don’t take responsibility for their mistakes because they are afraid that they’ll be punished. The prosecution wants the defendant to pay for their actions, so the verdict must include punishment.

I understand that some people won’t listen without a punishment, but there are many people who are willing to try to learn from their mistakes. Although everyone makes mistakes and bad choices, the ultimate question people wonder is: If one makes a mistake, are they a bad person? I believe that no one is a bad person. I think people can act rudely, be selfish, and make bad choices though. Not even delinquents are bad people. They are just people who made many bad choices. Sometimes I wonder, “Is it bad that I did something? ” and I think the answer isn’t that it was bad that I did it, but that I should’ve been more careful.

Then, I wonder, “Will I get in trouble? ” (I wish that the next question would be, “What can I do to make it better? ” but I’m not quite that enlightened yet. ) Eventually, I feel guilty so, though I’m not obligated to, I try to make things right. Some people say that a world where people made no mistakes would be a perfect world, but I think there are two problems with that statement. First, that without mistakes, you can’t improve yourself. Second, that there is no such thing a perfect. Though someone’s bad choices can hurt people, if they’re dealt with carefully, they can help the community.